Can anyone defeat this army set up.

[Poita]

I set up a custom battle that i thought would be doable, the bar says even at the start but i've lost my first 10 or so attempts at it. I manage to kill about 800 enemy only. Heres the config. Someone tell me if they can manage it. What formations you used and pics would be nice.

Julii v Germans. all units are maxe with sergent stripes upped to three bronze.

Play on 'Large' setting on Pripett marches, summer, morning, light rain.

You play as Julii.

JULII: 1 Roman General Cav, 1 heavy cav, 1 missile cav, 1 dog unit. 3 Legionary chohort, 4 Legionary urban cohort, 4 Triarii

GERMANS: 1 Chosen warlord cav, 4 heavy cav, 1 archer, 1 screaming wenches,1 skirmisher 3 phalanx pikemen, 4 Chosen Axemen, 4 Night raiders, 1 Berzerkers.

As i said the bar is pretty even and i was confident that my Triarii could hold off their cav on the flanks long enough for me to counter with mine and destroy them by also flinging a few cohort at them. This often worked but their axemen etc get in pretty fast.
I was able to rush ahead sometimes and wipe out the archer unit with my missile cav and heavy cav.
Once their Berzerkers get into my cohorts though and are followed up with night raiders and axemen my lines buckle.
I noticed that if i set up right at the back their cav get to me early sometimes and it gives me more time to wipe out their cav. by the time that's done though their inf are on me and although i can kill quite a few they wear me down in the end.
I'll be very very interested to see if it's possible.

Please write up how you do it if you mangage it.

[Publius]

Phew, one of the toughest battles of my TW career. After a few attempts, I realized that the two units which appear to be the least useful (cav auxilia and wardogs) are in fact the most important. The reason behind this is that when you deploy your legions and make a straight attack on the german army, their superior numbers are enough to isolate your men and destroy them. You have to use this tactic against them.

Heres what I did:
1) Deploy all infantry units in a tight pack (triarii in front line, with reg legions off to the sides and urbans behind triarii to support). General and heavy cav go behind them.
2) set cav auxillia and wardogs off on another part of the map.
3) Start Battle
4) If you can, work your way around their line and try to get to their berserkers with your cav auxilia. If you can do this and get these men in a bloodlust, keep them running all over the map.
5) A little before their army attacks your main force, send the wardogs out to hit their chosen axemen in the flanks. Your dogs will be annahilated, but the axes will not be able to participate in the main assault until (hopefully) their main force is crushed
6) Have all men in defensive position as they attack your men. The pilum thrown by the urbans from behind should thin thier ranks. Once they have used all of these, rush them to weak points to reinforce. Remember to have your general use the rally function frequently.
7) If you can rout one flank of the german force, move your men up to surround the enemy (more will rout this way).
8) Here you are in the critical moments of the battle. It is likely that your cav and wardogs have been destroyed, and German reinforcement are coming. At this point, use your heavy cavalry to sweep out and hit their missile units, and your general (if he can be spared) to take out already routing enemy units. In my battle, I had their main army routed by the time their reinforcements came, and by that point it was a simple matter of clean up.

Here's some pics of the battle:
The results:


The stats:


The carnage:

[orange slice]

wow, i cant even get close to winning that, it too hard for me

[Proximus]

Moved.

[westy159]

sexy screens publius, i like the unit cards, what mod u usng?

[Publius]

The unit cards were made by Alcord for Ferres' Modding Legions Full Pack v 1.3 Does a complete reskin of all four roman families (very nice skins imo) You can find both in the dl section

[Poita]

Good job Publius. Although you have 5 Triarii instead of 4.
You didn't really talk about how you dealt with their five cav units. They usually attack on the side but you kept your Triarii at the front.
Good job though.

[Hannibal Barca]

First of all a few questions. What difficulty was this played on? Who was attacking and who was defending? A few other things mean i probably made this easy on myself.

I played it on medium, julii defending and chose gothic cavalry for them and praetorian and late general for me. The rest seemed clear enough.

Anyway heres how i got on:



I started by deploying my infantry in the corner and placing my praetorian and auxilia cavalry in the woods. I also placed the dogs in the woods. Then i realised that i also had a fifth unit of triarii (buy 4 get a 5th free??). I was almost certain i had chosen 4. Oh well, i stuck one in the other corner in the woods where they enjoyed a picnic while others intestines spewed out everywhere.

The germans started the approach, so i sent my missile cavalry to harass their pikemen, the general nearby was having none of it and caught me (i turned skirmish off), i made them run towards my hidden cavalry after losing only 3 men. The general continued like a fool, my praetorian cavalry attacked routing them quickly and leaving only the general and 2 bodyguards. With the general gone things were made A LOT easier.



In the excitement i didn't realise i was under attack, fortunately their cavalry had engaged my triarii on the flank, i sent in an extra unit or two and they routed, the other two units of gothic cavalry did the same soon after, resulting in them routing as well. Excellent, the main engagement has not began and they now have no cavalry.

I got carried away and didn't take any screenshots till the end. But basically my praetorian and auxilia engaged lone units killing and routing many. My general kills lots before i realised he had advanced into the middle of the bulk of their army (following the routed gotic cav), i quickly withdrew him. Their units routed quite quickly now. One by one they wavered, the next lot engaged and they too ran, my infantry didn't lose too many. The berserkers did a bit of damage but the remainder of my cavalry finished them off. I chased what remained of their army off the field and then realised i had completely forgotten about the dogs in the woods that had been behind their lines

They mopped up a few pikemen at the end.

My general looked upon the infantry that had accomplised a clear victory:

[Poita]

Yeah i dont know why both you guys took 5 Triarii instead of 4 but at least you didnt use one.
Looks like you did a good job. I was beginning to think it was impossible.

Of course the setting is on very hard.

I'd like to see some footage of it. But don't worry i believe you.
I'll try it again myself.

[Hannibal Barca]

Sorry i played it on Medium, i will give it a try on very hard soon. I can send you the replay if i win. Btw, who is the attacker and what specific cavalry should i be picking??

I have the replay of the victory on medium if you want to see that.

[General Sun]

JULII: 1 Roman General Cav, 1 heavy cav, 1 missile cav, 1 dog unit. 3 Legionary chohort, 4 Legionary urban cohort, 4 Triarii

GERMANS: 1 Chosen warlord cav, 4 heavy cav, 1 archer, 1 screaming wenches,1 skirmisher 3 phalanx pikemen, 4 Chosen Axemen, 4 Night raiders, 1 Berzerkers.

I haven't tried this (can't, no RTW) but I imagine that it be easier as the attacker. This way you can force the battle where you want it with your pilum throwing legionaries acting as skirmishers, drawing out their cavalry to get rid of them first, then concentrating on the foot troops later.

[HappeR]

I just did this battle...lost when the Berzerkers charged in...

[Shazbot]

Hmmm, I've lost twice to this (probably because I had to replace the wardogs with Equitites[sp?])... a very hard battle indeed, many heartbreaks in this. But it's great fun, and I can almost see a comic in the battle... ( I probably shouldn't though, still need to finnish and release Eagle and the Boar Part II )

[Poita]

Ok the battle should be on very hard level. Also the Germans are the attackers. (but if you lose and click crossed swords to replay it it seems to forget this for the second round.)
have exactly the units i said. The cav are the best gen one and the best heavey ones. Just look at the stats to see which is which..
Max every unit to 3 upgrades each.

After about ten losses i played it a few days ago and tried Publius (although he used 5 triarii instead of 4) I used my exact setup again and this time i won. It was great. I didnt get any screen shots though.

I put two units off to the far right with a tiriarii in front of them. Three in the middle with two triarii in front. and two off to the right with a triarrii. All the germans split up and i was able to get them. I used my equite spear chuckers not to fight but to make one cav chase them so my men didnt have to fight them all at once.
It was close but i was able to use my cav at the right time and the three areas of battle were won in sequence. then the remaining soldiers rushed over to join the next one.
I can't believe that i actually did it to be honest. I think haveing the Triarii stall them while my cohorts threw their pilla made the difference as Publius said.
Keep at it lads. If anyone does it on very hard i'd like to see the replay.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

ok,

played it on VH (and messed up badly, should have lost about 200-300 less troops, maybe more ), anyway, will try to do it properly next time....





and folks, would you all have a look at this thread (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=48922), I'd like to make this sort of thing a lot more common and get this sub-forum buzzing again.

[MasterAdnin]

Okay, I played the battle, and this is what happend to me:

I lost 370 men, and killed 1335 including their general. This was on hard difficulty.

Advanced stats. We should do this more often. Tactical, you should make a stickied thread and give challenges every week, kind of like POTD, to see who can do the best.

Peace,
Adnan

[Hader]

No one has checked out my battle set up yet, in the BI forums! Come on, it will really test your skills!

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

I just did this battle...lost when the Berzerkers charged in...

Beserkers are easy to kill. Make sure the 2 units of legionarries opposite them still have their pilums and keep the wardogs immdeiately behind them. When the beserkers go red and charge, immediately counter-charge them with your wardogs and put the two legionary units onto fire at will.

End result is the beserkers will get massacred before they get to your lines (I even had them rout which I didn't think was possible.......)

Do remember though to keep your dog-handlers back and stp them chasing after their dogs.

[Poita]

Master Adnin, supposed to try it on V hard.

Also, tactical. I don't know if it makes any difference but it's supposed to be on Large not Huge.

Glad to see some are suceeding.
yeah it would be great to have a special category of thread with such challenges.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

Master Adnin, supposed to try it on V hard.

Also, tactical. I don't know if it makes any difference but it's supposed to be on Large not Huge.

Glad to see some are suceeding.
yeah it would be great to have a special category of thread with such challenges.

forgot that it was supposed to be on Large (I think it's more difficult on Huge, not sure though). Anyway, I'm going to do it again as I messed up the end of the battle and shouldn't have lost half the guys I did. I'll do that one on Huge to see what difference it makes.

and yes, I'm trying to start up a 'battle of the week' type of thing. I'll get it going next week (very busy interviewing today and tomorrow + parents visiting this weekend). If I get it to work I'll post my strategy (basically so far I have destroyed the AI's entire right flank + all of his cavalry and general for the loss of around 100 men (on Huge), it's the end-game I haven't got quite right yet)

Tac